


Stay

by Galleywinter



Category: When The Night Comes (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23907523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galleywinter/pseuds/Galleywinter
Summary: Two weeks after the defeat of Lieutenant General Addington, General Greer Taggart forgets to put together some very important pieces of a very important puzzle and subsequently apologizes. Straight fluff, rating for language only.
Relationships: Alkar Cassian/Greer Taggart, Alkar Cassian/Hunter
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	Stay

**Author's Note:**

> I did not intend for this to turn into what it did. Not even a little. It was supposed to be cute, brief fluff. The last 20% of what’s here is all that was ever supposed to be. And then they insisted there needed to be setup, and by the time I was done, I needed a beta for it. I regret nothing.
> 
> A huge thank you to Reindeer for letting me yell at them all this last week and a half about this game and about Greer, to Flynn for also encouraging these shenanigans, and to Eleneri for being my permanent enabler and for the beta.

Making Lieutenant General Harold Addington III disappear was turning out to require far more paperwork than Greer Taggart could have imagined existed in the whole of Eskria.

Most of it, she felt, probably currently piled on her desk.

Somewhere, she _knew_ , under the mountains of parchments, was her desktop. The cover story had seemed so straightforward - upon the murders being solved, Harry was stepping down to mourn his husband and enjoy the peace now blanketing Eskria that he had fought so hard to create - that it generated so much additional _work_ seemed like some cruel karmic joke.

A sigh built and swelled behind Greer's ribs as she listened to the newest recruit continue to gush about the prestige attached to working at the HQ in Lunaris and how unworthy he felt of it. He'd been going for the last eight minutes and showed no signs of slowing. Somehow, he'd even managed to avoid repeating himself.

He was enthusiastic, at least she could grudgingly give him that.

Before she could find it in herself to dismiss him, the sharp clack of heels approaching from down the hallway pricked at her ears. It had never sounded quite so much like music before.

"Your enthusiasm is a credit to you," Greer finally managed, cutting the junior off midsentence and offering him the warmest smile she could muster under the circumstances. "But if you'll excuse me, I believe I have a meeting."

Greer stood and made her way around the edge of her desk just as August stepped into her doorway.

"General Taggart."

"General Willenheim," she responded with a simple nod of her head, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. August's glance flicked from her to the recruit who had shot out of his chair so quickly it had rocked back onto its legs. He stood at stiff attention as August slowly crossed the floor toward him, one of their dark brows arched, their eyes carefully appraising him.

"Your name, junior?" August's voice was sharp, their enunciation clipped.

"Samuel Robertson, General." Apprehension rolled off him in thick waves, making Greer's own stomach knot.

"Your Enforcer?"

Robertson licked his lips. His hands shook slightly. "Moira Baxter, General."

August's brow climbed impossibly higher on their forehead. "Then I suggest you find her, Robertson. I tolerate neither tardiness nor fools in this office, and she's been expecting you for ten minutes."

"Y-yes, General. Right away."

Greer watched him scamper out the door, practically tripping over his own feet.

"I'm surprised he didn't tear the floorboards up as he went," she snorted, finally sagging back against the edge of her desk. There was a momentary thought for the precarious stacks of parchment, but she didn't care enough to stop herself.

August didn't respond, but they were still oddly tense. They pursed their lips as their gaze slid over her shoulder, taking in the state of her desk.

"I know, I _know_ ," Greer groaned, dropping her head back and screwing her eyes shut in resignation of the ass-chewing she was sure she was about to receive. "I'm sorry, August, I'm working as fast as I can on it, b-"

A delicate hand landed on her shoulder, long fingers squeezing warmly. Greer's eyes flew open. August's face was sympathetic, a soft smile lingering in their eyes if not curving their mouth.

"I'm not worried about the speed of your work, Greer. None of us expected this situation, and I certainly don't think any of us expected this-" their hand slid from her shoulder, and they waved it in the direction of her desk "-would be the result." They leaned in closer, their voice dropping low. "We can make this take as long as we need. It isn't as if he's going anywhere."

Greer huffed a laugh. "While you aren't wrong, I'm not cut out for this. I'm a _Hunter_ , August. I wanted to help you, but I'm ready for it to be over. I'm ready to be back in the field."

August hummed their agreement. "I understand. I'll take back as much as I can so we can speed this along. But for today, go home."

All Greer could do was blink at them. "I'm sorry?" She was sure she'd misheard. Or perhaps imagined it.

"Go home."

"But August, it's only just past lunch-"

"I know what time it is, Greer. And I know what I'm telling you." Something odd flickered behind their eyes, and Greer wasn't sure if it made her uneasy or merely agitated. Or both. "Stop arguing. Go home."

Greer knew that tone, and it made her want to bite out a curse: they weren't going to order her, but it might as well have been an order all the same. Fucking Lunaris. Fucking Lunaris and its fucking cagey residents, even if this one was her friend. A sigh from what felt like the depths of her soul rushed out of her, and even she could hear the resignation tinging it.

"Fine," she said on the chasing end of it. "I'll go." August's brow began to arch in acceptance, but Greer squinted at them, folding her arms stubbornly across her chest. "But if I find out you slept here or touched so much as a _scrap_ of parchment on my desk-"

"You'll what?" August scoffed. "Tell my mother?"

"Worse," she hissed. "I'll tell _Ezra_."

August's only response was a sniff as they turned on their heel and headed for her door again. But Greer hadn't missed the slight tic in the corner of their jaw before they had their back to her. "Take all of tomorrow off, too," they said as they reached the threshold. "I'd best not see you before then."

They carefully closed the door behind themselves, the small click resounding sharply in the complete silence of her office. She curled her fingers around the edge of the desk at either side of her hip, drumming against the desktop in an even, steady rhythm and debated ducking back around the desk to complete the requisition form that awaited only her signature. Hesitation made her rhythm falter as a realization sparked. _That_ was probably why they had come up to her desk, to see what she had completed and to ensure she didn't do even a single moment's work extra.

A frustrated groan rolled from behind her clenched teeth as she tipped her face skyward, seeking guidance, succor, _anything_. She took a breath, two, centering herself before taking a third breath deep enough to stretch her lungs and letting it out in a rush.

"Fine!" she yelled as she shoved back to her feet. The paperwork from hell would apparently wait.

When she opened her office door, she wasn't surprised to find August standing in the hallway next to the large windows across from her office. Their obviously feigned inspection of the training yard below left Greer fighting a grin, and she licked her tongue across her teeth. "You win," she said simply, propping a hand on her hip and giving a small shrug.

The beginnings of a smile curved August's lips as they turned to her. "As if that would have been in question. I don't want to see so much as the hem of your coat until the day after tomorrow." That strange swirl of _something_ flashed behind their eyes again, but they brushed past her and strode into their own office before she could so much as open her mouth.

Their door closed with a very definite-sounding click.

That closed door had the same effect as seeing a Fae's smile: it made unease blossom in her gut. She was missing something; she knew it. She just had no clue _what_. All she could do was hope the fresh air and the time off would slot the pieces into place and she'd figure it out before it bit her on the ass.

What were the odds?

As she pushed open the heavy wooden doors at the front of Headquarters, a burst of Lunarian spring air rushed in, kicking tendrils of hair into her face. Tucking them back with one hand, she leaned to shoulder the door the rest of the way open with the other, and nearly ended up sprawled across the steps as it was yanked away from her. She lurched as gravity shifted, the smell of petrichor and fresh earth washing over her as a pair of strong hands latched onto her waist.

Greer's heart leapt into her mouth - part adrenaline, part the simple joy of seeing him, and part the brick wall of his agitation slamming into her with the force of a charging bull.

"Hello, handsome," she managed to say as brightly as she could despite the thundering of her pulse.

Alkar attempted a smile, but it looked more like a snarl due to the deep furrow between his brows and the fact that his wolf ears were practically pinned to his skull.

He bent and pressed a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth before darting back, color high on his cheeks. Greer reached out before he could get too far, catching his hand and lacing their fingers together. This much he had become comfortable with, sure of. This much he sought out from her hungrily and _often_. So when his fingers stayed uncharacteristically stiff between her own, his grip almost too tight as she raised his hand to her lips to brush a kiss to his fingertips, it made apprehension skitter under her skin.

At least his breath still caught in the back of his throat at the touch. Greer couldn't help the smug smile the sound elicited and hid it with another quick kiss to his fingers.

"You alright?" she asked, then lowered her voice. "This isn't exactly your favorite place."

Alkar cast a dark look past her shoulder at the front door to the Enforcer Headquarters, his free hand twitching toward his shirt as if to yank his collar more firmly over his brand, but his fingers balled into a fist that he let hang by his hip instead.

"Bout to ask you that," he muttered with a brief shake of his head as he turned and tugged gently on her hand, urging her to follow him down the steps. "I'm not the one who almost fell flat on my face."

Greer gave Alkar's hand a grateful squeeze before skating her thumb down his forefinger. It twitched under her touch. "And I have a dashing hero to thank for saving me from such embarrassment."

Alkar snorted and muttered something under his breath, but Greer could see the edge of a grin kicking up the corner of his mouth. Despite it, his ears were still flat to his head and the tension in his face hadn't eased.

"You finally tell Willenheim you quit?" he asked as he led her to the bridge to the center of town. His tail swished behind him more sharply than usual, in a tighter arc, visible proof of the agitation Greer could feel still radiating from him in waves. "Cause I would have wanted to be there for that. The look on their face had to be fucking brilliant."

She meant to laugh, but it came out sounding more like a scoff. "They'd have a heart attack if I did." She caught stride with him, playfully bumping her hip into his thigh. "I _did_ tell them the paperwork is driving me mad."

Red eyes narrowed appraisingly at her. "You threaten to burn it all?"

She managed an amused little noise in the back of her throat despite the worsening stricture in her chest caused by Alkar's agitation. "I think they'd likely help me."

"You're fucking lying." He almost sounded aghast but for the smile just wide enough to show her a flash of fang. "August 'Stick up their arse' Willenheim burning paperwork. You're either completely stupid or you think I am."

An actual honest _giggle_ bubbled up from her belly. The ability to laugh so freely, even with her boyfriend's agitation so heavy to be a near physical presence, felt good. The fact that the squeeze of his fingers in response felt affectionate rather than strained was even better. "It's a lot of fucking paperwork. Do you know the last time I had to do paperwork? _Never_."

Alkar sniffed, nodding his head. "Ah. Only taught you how to write your name then sent you off to fight their bloody wars. Got it."

Greer tried to nod solemnly, but her cheeks ached with the attempt to tamp down her smile. "Exactly. And how to count to four."

"Sad life, that."

"The _worst_."

The line of Alkar's shoulders had relaxed some the farther they moved from Headquarters, but his ears were still fairly pinned and his tail, which he normally slung around her waist, still flicked tensely behind him. And all of that was secondary to the rolling waves of upset that were still making her stomach knot.

As a Hunter, strategy and gut instinct were second nature to her. She employed both as they stepped off the far side of the bridge: a quick glance down the back alley showed it empty save Mrs. Potter at its mouth hanging laundry out to dry from her upper windows.

Alkar barked out a noise of frustrated surprise as Greer quickened her pace and practically tugged him down the alley behind her rather than following him down the main road where he'd intended to take her. She ignored him, dragging him further down the alley.

She only stopped when the bustle of the market and the rushing burble of the river were nothing more than gentle impressions of sound. Keeping her fingers firmly laced through his, she leaned back against the brick wall of the house. The furrow between Alkar's brow was still deep, and his mouth was twisted into a scowl.

"The hell was that?" he grumbled, but he made no move to leave her or take his hand back.

Greer made sure to keep his gaze as she carefully, _pointedly_ , laid his broad hand on her waist and reached for his other, taking it in both her own. She traced the back of his hand with her thumbs and trailed her fingertips across his palm, relishing in the feel of the scars and calluses and the unnatural warmth of his skin. He had only recently stopped bandaging his hands at all, and it always made her heart stutter to feel his skin so starkly and openly against her own.

She brought his hand to her lips, fluttering a kiss across his fingertips, his palm, the inside of his wrist as she brought his hand to her cheek. Color bloomed sharply across his face, ruddy from his hair to his neck, and his fangs and teeth dug into his lower lip. His eyes didn't move from her face, but she noticed the barest twitch of his wolf ears - still too close to his head for her liking - as he tried to sense anyone who might be near.

Laying her heart bare in her eyes, letting Alkar see every ounce of the love she felt for him, the _concern_ , Greer reached out to tentatively cup his jaw. A strangled noise erupted from Alkar's throat, but he didn't flinch away from her touch.

"You're worrying me," she said. His lip was nearly white where the points of his fangs dug in, and she was worried he might draw blood. "You never come to HQ, much less in the middle of the day, and the way you _feel_ -" she waved her free hand helplessly in a sweeping gesture encompassing him from head to toe, "-you're making _my_ stomach ache. What's _wrong_?"

Alkar's lips twitched, almost a snarl if she hadn't known better. "Stay at the Wolf tonight, alright?"

Her own confusion and concern crested against his residual agitation, making her stomach churn. "Why?"

"Just-" a frustrated growl "- _please_." He nearly spit it out as if it were something foul, and she couldn't help a small giggle.

"I thought you didn't beg." It was meant to be a tease, something light and gentle to ease whatever he needed to say.

Instead, it brought a string of muttered, broken curses bursting from Alkar's lips, and then he pressed his forehead suddenly, almost violently, to hers. His eyes were screwed shut, his breath hot and heavy through his nose. His fingers curled against her waist and her cheek, not hard enough to bruise but hard enough to steady against the tremor she felt in them. She slid her hand from his jaw to his hair, carding her fingers through it, even as she slipped her other arm around his shoulders, holding him close.

"Alkar?" She refused to acknowledge the crack in her voice.

"It's a full moon tonight." She had never heard him so _sullen_.

Her stomach dropped to her boots.

" _Shit_ ," she breathed as realization shot through her veins like ice water. _This_ is what she had been missing in the conversation with August. She couldn't believe she'd been so _stupid_.

A huff of a laugh, more frustration than humor, escaped her, and Alkar made to jerk away at the sound of it. She refused to let him, burying her fingers more tightly in his hair, and tipping her face up so their noses brushed. His crinkled against her own, and her heart gave a dull thud at the _hurt_ in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "It isn't you. It isn't _this_ ," she slid her hand through his hair to trace the edge of one of his wolf ears. "Surely you know that by now." He snorted a little, saying nothing, but his shoulders loosened some under her arm. "I keep telling you, I'm in this for the long haul, too. It's _me_ ; I'm an idiot." She felt his brow draw together against her own, saw his mouth twisting in a harsh frown.

He leaned back, and this time, she let him, her hand sliding from his hair to his neck where she could feel his pulse drumming steadily under her palm. He dropped the hand that had been pressed to her face, and her heart swelled with relief when he immediately laid it on her waist.

A heavy sigh escaped her in a rush of spent adrenaline and mental agitation. "I was leaving work because August sent me home for the rest of the day and ordered me to take tomorrow off, too. I _know_ it's a full moon tonight - I've had lunar cycles memorized since I was fourteen - but I just..." She paused, searching for the words to explain and coming up utterly empty. "With everything going on, I just _forgot_ ," she finished lamely.

Alkar's stance was looser, his ears back but no longer _flat_ , and the swish of his tail was _almost_ languid. "Willenheim gave you today off?" Disbelief colored his voice, and Greer couldn't blame him.

"They did. And refused to tell me why. Maybe they were being kind. Maybe they just assumed I'd remember." She scoffed a small noise of disgust. "I _should_ have. I'm sorry."

The tip of Alkar's tail grazed against her ankle, and warmth spread through her fingers. A small smirk was beginning to curve his mouth. "Say that again? Think I missed it."

An answering grin tugged at her own. She scuffed her thumb across the fullness of his lower lip, over the bump of a scar that cut through it, before schooling her features into the most contrite face she could manage. "I forgot," she said, simply. Earnestly. "And I'm sorry."

His fingers squeezed her waist, more gently this time, and he shrugged casually. "'Spose I can forgive you. _This_ time."

The quick press of his forehead against hers this time was more a nuzzle than anything, quick and fleeting but sweet, as he turned loose of her waist and instead laced their fingers together. The slide of his palm, the press of it, the feeling of his skin against hers was grounding, comforting. If the way he curled his fingers around her hand was any indication, he felt the same.

He stepped back so she could shove away from the wall, and the familiar, heavy weight of his tail settling around her waist led to the first truly easy breath she'd taken in the last ten minutes.

"Is that why you were coming to headquarters?" she asked as they began to meander toward the end of the alley. "To ask me not to come over?"

Alkar's pout was _almost_ pretty, and Greer had to feign a cough to hide a laugh at the sight of it. "Who said I was coming to see you? Maybe I was coming to see Meriman."

"Right," Greer teased, knocking her hip against him. "You were coming to see _Piper_."

"Sure. Won't have time to pick a fight with her tonight, now will I? Feels like there's a fucking hole in my day if I don't see Meriman livid."

Greer snickered as they skirted around the edge of the main thoroughfare, keeping as much distance between themselves and the Aibek as possible. "Some days, I wonder if she feels the same." She leaned into Alkar, loving the firm press of his side against hers. His tail tightened around her at her shift in weight, and she raised a hand to bury her fingers in the thick fur.

"Damn straight," Alkar said. "I'm a man who's hard to live without."

The purr that rolled through her chest was only partly intentional. Looking up at him from under her lashes and letting her teeth sink into the edge of her lower lip, however, were wholly intentional. "Damn straight you are," she said, hearing the huskiness in her own voice and not giving a single damn.

A blush immediately darkened his cheeks and his fingers tightened around her hers. "Oh, fuckin' hush," he muttered, completely without heat.

Greer hummed contemplatively, pretending to consider it. "Nah," she finally said. "I don't think I will. You're especially handsome when you blush like that."

Alkar sputtered something that sounded like a curse and the tips of his human ears began to turn red, but he still didn't take his hand from hers.

As the Wolf came into view, though, his tail slipped from her waist, and Alkar gently tugged her around to face him. He raised her hand to his lips, whispering a kiss across her knuckles as his tail wound around her thigh.

Confusion sent her mind churning even as disappointment was a weight on her sternum. She'd been looking forward to spending time with Alkar - in the last two weeks, she had only been given two days off, and those two days had been in the immediate aftermath of her fight with Harry. Time with her boyfriend had been taken as they could get it, scattered hours and stolen moments, most of them asleep, it felt like.

"You aren't going to come in? I can get you some lunch."

A regretful smile tugged up one corner of his mouth. "As tempting as that offer is, sweetheart, not today. Don't want to risk getting caught up," he winked rakishly, and Greer could feel heat rising in her own cheeks, "and being stuck here at, well... y'know."

Greer lifted her other hand to his jaw, tracing the line of it with the barest touch of her fingertips. His next exhale had a hint of a growl to it, something that hit her low in the gut. "Cheeky," she muttered, shaking her head and refusing to fight the smile spreading across her face.

Alkar turned his head to playfully nip at her fingertips. "You love it."

"You're right," she said earnestly as she cupped his cheek in her hand. "I do. I love _you_. Be careful tonight?"

He leaned into her touch and turned his face enough to press a kiss to her palm. "Love you, too. I'm always careful." A rueful chuckle rolled from his chest. " _Usually_. Been doing this a long time."

"Well _I haven't_ ," Greer grumbled. "And I worry about you."

Something soft sparked in Alkar's eyes even as he blushed again, and he nuzzled against her palm. "Gonna spoil me if you aren't careful. Then what are you gonna do?"

She wrinkled her nose in mock contemplation before offering him a broad wink. "Have a spoiled, six foot two Lycan boyfriend."

He snorted a laugh before leaning down to press his forehead to hers again. "I'll come by tomorrow after I wake up," he said, his voice so low it was little more than a rumble. "Might be after lunch, though."

"I'll be here," she answered as she brushed the tip of her nose against his. "Love you."

"Love you, too." It was quiet, murmured against the curve of her mouth, but he said it all the same. She smiled into the brief kiss, then with a squeeze of her fingers and a squeeze of his tail around her thigh, he walked away and toward the forest.

Greer watched him go, responding to the damnably adorable half-wave he tossed her over his shoulder before he disappeared into the treeline, and began to hatch a plan.  
____

Birds were still trilling in the canopy as Greer picked her way through what had quickly become an intimately familiar stretch of forest, though the sun was low on the horizon, bathing the sky in deep oranges and burnished pinks.

She stopped a few hundred yards from the trapdoor, closing her eyes, reaching out with her senses. Trying to see if she could feel him.

_Nothing._

Which was exactly how she wanted it. A smile crept across her lips as she continued on. For her plan to work, he had to not be expecting it.

He always left the hatch exposed nowadays, and her heart always swelled at the sight of it. At the realization that he'd done that for _her_. She wondered, some days, how others couldn't see the kindness in him the way she could.

_God_ , she didn't know if she deserved him... but she was so grateful she had him.

She lifted the trap door as silently as possible and slipped inside.

The fairy lights were low as Greer came down the stairs - not quite as low as Alkar kept them while sleeping, but dimmer than while he was awake. She moved to the back of the cave toward his little low table and raised her finger to a particular bulb in the string that hung above it. The lights flared under the drag of her touch, brightening considerably.

Shrugging her traveling pack from her back, she carefully set it on the table and flipped the top open. She pulled out a cheesecloth wrapped around an assortment of foodstuffs, the cheapest bottle of red wine Edna was willing to sell her, and an expensive imported coffee she'd picked up at the grocer's that afternoon. She tossed the pack over toward the bed, watching it land with a satisfying muted thump on the plush blankets.

As she was unwrapping the cheesecloth, a distant, distinctively Lycan howl echoed beyond the hatch. A chill shot down Greer's spine, and her hand instinctively moved to hover over the hilt of her silver dagger before she tore it away.

She forced her hands back to the table, wrapping her fingers around the edge of it and screwed her eyes shut, reaching out, sensing, _searching_.

She could feel him now, and she _knew_ it was him. It was an achingly, comfortingly familiar wash of sensation buried under the thin veneer of what she knew to be _Lycan_. It was such an odd thing, to feel _Alkar_ in the heart of the storm that was a Lycan's sense feedback. She pushed past the strangeness of it, trying to gauge distance.

He was _close_. Closer than he had been only moments before.

She stood for one slow heartbeat, two, three, waiting to see what he would do. Her heart stuttered when his presence grew stronger, _closer_ , and then with another loud bray, his presence withdrew at terrible speed.

Greer blew out a harsh, fast breath of relief that emptied her lungs.

"Thank you, Finnegan," she murmured as she resumed setting her treasures out on the table. She peeled back the edges of the cheesecloth and splayed it out, settings its contents atop it: a loaf of hearty sourdough, a hunk of cheese, and a thick slab of strawberry poundcake. A quick step over to Alkar's meager stack of dishes, and the place settings were complete.

She picked up the little bag of coffee with one hand and lifted a finger to the fairy lights again, dimming them, then made her way first to the stove to deposit the coffee, and then to the bed.

Reaching into her pack once again, she pulled out her favorite nightclothes and a book she had brought with her when she'd been assigned to Lunaris but hadn't yet had time to start before tossing the pack into the far reaches of the cave. Stripping out of her clothes was perfunctory and habitual, though she did make at least a token effort to ensure her boots were shoved somewhere that they wouldn't become a potential tripping hazard.

The soft, delicate gauze of her sleeping shift whispered over her skin as she tugged it into place. As she slipped beneath the sheets, a waft of scent that was unmistakably _Alkar_ washed over her, and it was all she could do not to purr aloud. His scent clung thick and heavy on his pillow, too, as she cuddled against it, and she burrowed her nose into it, filling her lungs and not even bothering to fight the smile she knew was broad and bright on her face.

And then she grabbed her book and waited.

Hours later, exhaustion was finally starting to drag heavily on her eyelids when daylight flooded down the stairs as the hatch opened. Greer set her book aside and watched as Alkar stumbled down the steps, clothes clutched in his hands. He blinked owlishly at her in the bed, eyes red-rimmed and shoulders sagging until his brain caught up with him and he snapped to rigid attention, immediately on alert. The muscles in his shoulders and arms tensed, and his wolf ears stood straight up.

Greer was almost sure his tail bristled a little.

"Greer? What's wrong? Why're you here?"

She stretched out an arm to him, wiggling her fingers in invitation. "Everything's fine. _I'm_ fine. C'mere."

Alkar squinted warily at her but resumed staggering down the steps and toward the bed.

He dropped his clothes to the floor in a heap as he lifted a knee to the mattress and pressed his face into her outstretched hand. He was too exhausted to pout properly, but he made a valiant effort at it, twisting his lips just enough to frown a bit. "Thought I told you not to come."

Greer reached for him with her other hand, combing her fingers through his hair and coaxing him up the bed with gentle curls of her fingers against his jaw. "You did," she agreed.

Alkar dragged himself up the bed at a slow crawl, reaching for her thigh with a broad hand and tugging her leg over his hip as she pulled the covers over them both.

"I brought you breakfast," Greer whispered against his skin as his arm slid around her waist and tightened, tucking her close to his chest. A broad, deep yawn stretched his chest, and Greer couldn't help but feather a kiss across his sternum. He shuddered at the touch, and she could feel his pulse trip.

He grumbled sleepily, then buried his nose in her hair as his tail slung across her hip. "When?"

"Last night."

Another yawn, then the tickle of his fingertips stroking the nape of her neck. "Next time lock the hatch. Can't open it when I don't have thumbs."

"We'll talk about it later," she whispered, the words nearly lost in a yawn of her own.

Alkar grunted, then whispered a single word into her hair: "Stay."

She pressed another kiss to his chest, his pulse thumping steadily under her lips. "Thought you'd never ask."


End file.
